Dalea lumholtzii

  • Title

    Dalea lumholtzii

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Dalea lumholtzii B.L.Rob. & Fernald

  • Description

    10.  Dalea lumholtzii Robinson & Fernald

    (Plate XXXVI)

    Herbaceous from a woody root, becoming suffruticulose, 1.5-5 (6) dm tall, the loosely tufted, erect or assurgent, finely ribbed and verruculose stems simple or branched from near the middle, commonly giving rise at base, late in the season, to many short, leafy but barren shoots, densely pilosulous to thinly puberulent throughout with fine, subappressed or loosely ascending hairs up to 0.3-0.8 mm long, the vesture commonly denser proximally, the upper leaves sometimes glabrous or nearly so except for the puberulent rachis, the foliage either green or cinereous, the leaflets dotted both above and beneath; leaf-spurs 0.4-0.8 mm long, charged dorsally on each side with a large gland; stipules narrowly subulate or subsetiform, castaneous or livid, 1-2.8 mm long, becoming dry and fragile; intrapetiolular glands obsolete; post-petiolular glands prominent, obtuse; main cauline leaves shortly petioled, (2) 2.5-5 cm long, with narrowly margined, commonly punctate rachis and 10-17 pairs of linear, linear-oblanceolate, or -elliptic, obtuse or retuse, thick-textured, usually conduplicate or channeled leaflets 2-9 (10) mm long, the leaves of basal spurs smaller, with mostly 4-10 pairs of leaflets only 1.5-3 mm long; peduncles terminal to all branches, (1.5) 2.5-10 cm long; spikes very dense, conelike, ovoid becoming subglobose, ovoid, or

    the first, central one becoming oblong-cylindroid, without petals 6-8.5 mm diam, the axis becoming 0.4-1.4 (3) cm long; bracts persistent, dimorphic, (1.5) 2-4 mm long, the lowest obovate-flabellate to rhombic-ovate, glabrous or puberulent, but ciliolate below the middle, purplish-castaneous and glandular dorsally, the interfloral ones rhombic-spatulate, densely pilosulous dorsally in lower half or sometimes throughout, the tips often glabrous dorsally but ciliolate; calyx 2.7-4 (4.3) mm long, subglabrous externally or puberulent distally, the oblong-ovoid, slightly incurved tube 2.1-2.8 (3) mm long, deeply and widely recessed behind the banner, the ribs filiform, castaneous distally, the membranous intervals eglandular (or minutely glandular as seen from within), the subulate teeth crowded toward the abaxial side of the orifice, d= incurved, unequal, the dorsal one longest, up to 0.4-1.3 (1.5) mm long; petals either all white or bicolored, the banner then white and the epistemonous ones blue, these perched 0.9-2.4 mm distant from the hypanthium, well below separation of the filaments; banner 3-5.2 (5.9) mm long, the claw 1-2.6 (3.2) mm, the ovate-elliptic or rhombic- suborbicular blade 2-2.4 mm long, about as wide; wing- and keel-petals similar, 2.6-5.5 mm long, the inner pair slightly smaller but inserted a little higher and therefore appearing as long, the narrowly oblong-oblanceolate blades 2.3-4 mm long, 1.1-1.3 mm wide, contracted at base into a claw 0.4-1.8 mm long; androecium 10- merous, 5-7.7 mm long, the filaments free for 2.6-3.7 mm, the connective gland- tipped, the anthers 0.6-0.65 mm long; pod obliquely ovoid, the style-base lateral but scarcely below the apex, the sutures filiform, the valves membranous nearly throughout, thinly chartaceous and puberulent along the prow, eglandular; seed ±1.7 mm long.— Collections: 15 (o).

    Open rocky hillsides in the oak-madrone and oak-pine belts, 1400-1900 m (4700-6700, perhaps "7000" ft), local and discontinuous along the Pacific slope of n. Sierra Madre Occidental, best known from the great bend of Rio Bavispe in mpos. Nacozari de Garcia, Bacerac, and Bavispe, Sonora and immediately adjoining mpo. Janos, Chihuahua, s. just within Chihuahua on Sierra de Vallecillos, drainage of Rio Papi- gochic (mpo. Madera), and about the upper affluents of Rio Mayo (mpos. Moris and Ocampo), n.-ward at isolated stations in s.-e. Arizona, on Pajarito and Tumacacori Mts. (Santa Cruz Co.,), Baboquivari Mts. (Pima County) and reportedly Santa Catalina Mts. (Pima County; cf. Parosela arizonica infra). — Flowering August to October. — Representative: Arizona: Gould, Darrow & Haskell 2720 (NY, UC); Goodding 1702 (US). Sonora: 5. 5. White 3192 (ARIZ, GH, MICH), 3484 (ARIZ, GH, MEXU, MICH), 4179 (ARIZ, GH, MICH). Chihuahua: Tucker 2511 (UC); LeSueur 709 (ARIZ, F, GH, TEX); 5. 5. White 2521 (ARIZ, GH, MEXU, MICH); Gentry 2795 (ARIZ).

    Dalea lumholtzii (Carl Lumholtz, anthropologist, 1851-1922) Robins. & Fern., Proc. Amer. Acad. 30: 115. 1894 ("Lumholtzii'"). — "Collected at Las [sic] Pinitos, Sonora, at 6100 feet, by Mr. Hartman, 14 October, 1890 (no. 133)." — Holotypus, GH (2 sheets)! isotypi, NY, UC, US\ — Parosela lumholtzii (Robins. & Fern.) Vail, Bull. Torrey Club 26: 117. 1899.

    Parosela arizonica (of Arizona) Vail, Bull. Torrey Club 24: 14. 1895 ("Arizonica"). - "Vicinity of Tucson, Arizona; collected by Herbert Brown, October, 1895." — Holotypus, communicated by Alice Eastwood, who received it "from an editor of a country paper who received it from a ranchman," perhaps collected in Santa Catalina Mts., NY!

    Dalea arizonica (Vail) K. Schum., Bot. Jahresb. 271: 493. 1901.

    Dalea astragalopsis (with aspect of some Astragalus) Standi., Field Mus., Bot. 22 (1): 25. 1940 ("Astragalopsis"). — "Mexico: Sierra Canelo, Rio Mayo, Chihuahua... August 26, 1936, Howard Scott Gentry 2479." — Holotypus, F! isotypi, ARIZ, GH, K, UC!

    In habit, foliage, and type of pubescence this elegant dalea resembles the more slender forms of D. albiflora, though obviously different in its short, conelike flower-spikes, and when closely observed in the faintly nerved, externally glabrate, short-toothed and strongly oblique calyx. The spikes, which suggest after anthesis, because of their closely imbricated, dusky-tipped bracts, the "hardheads" of some Centaurea, are much like those of the next species, D. ananassa, but this has much fewer, glabrous leaflets, a calyx only slightly recessed behind the banner, and bracts densely pubescent on the inner face. The typus of D. lumholtzii appears, like the few known Arizona populations of the species, to have uniformly white flowers, but the epistemonous petals of most modern collections from Sonora show a variable depth of blue color when dried. Assuming that the type-station is at or close to Cerro Pinitos at 30° 30' N, 109° 30' W, that is on the west side of the Ba- vispe valley oppostie El Tigre Mine where the blue-flowered forms have been collected, the presence of anthocyanin is not correlated with dispersal. The pubescence of D. lumholtzii is now known to vary in length and density as much as that of D. albiflora. Thus the relatively thick-pubescent, blue-flowered D. astragalopsis appears to have been described from a taxonomically insignificant variant.

    Collectors have repeatedly noticed and recorded the strong and agreable scent of the crushed foliage of D. lumholtzii, described as resembling that of lemon-balm (Melissa) or lemon-verbena (Aloysia). In Sonora the species is known as limoncillo, and an infusion of the leaves is drunk under the name té limón.